1. plan/model for loss of staff/provider time during implementation

It was necessary to plan for loss of productivity during the initial implementation of EMR. We reduced medical professional schedules to 50% for the first month. Then we opened slots, depending on the provider and how well he/she was doing.

During this process, we planned for 50% loss in the first month, 25% loss in the second, and to be running at 100% productivity by month three. We were close in our estimations. The providers were back to 100% productivity by the fourth month.

There were many positive and negative factors that influenced our productivity. One negative was that providers were resistant to adding more capacity. They felt overwhelmed with the increase of hours that occur during the intitial implementation period. A positive factor is the competitiveness of some providers. This helped to raise the numbers more quickly

We did not use a spreadsheets or any other analysis tool.